Judging

Judging Criteria

The judges will be asking questions of each participant to ensure they understand the project. Please review the below Judging Criteria and the Questions the Judges Might Ask to best prepare yourself and ensure your project is viewed well in the eyes of the judges.

CREATIVITY (30 points total)
  • Problem is original or is a unique approach to an old problem (considering the student's grade level)
  • Applications of project information shows student's creative involvement
  • Equipment and materials are used ingeniously
  • Interpretation of data is appropriate for student's grade level
  • Student shows evidence of understanding that unanswered questions remain
  • Creativity is evident 
SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT (30 points total)
  • The hypothesis is clearly stated and the project clearly designed
  • The project shows depth of study and effort
  • Project exhibits orderly recording and analysis of data
  • Sampling techniques and data collection are appropriate for the problem
  • Scientific procedures are appropriate and organized
  • Conclusions formulated are logical, based on the data collected, and are relevant to the hypothesis
THOROUGHNESS (15 points total)
  • The study is complete within the scope of the problem
  • Scientific literature has been searched
  • Experiments have been repeated and careful records have been kept     

SKILL (15 points total)        
  • Project is skillfully designed so that it yields valid, reliable and accurate data     
  • Special skills needed for construction or use of equipment is evident
  • Special mathematical, computational or observational skills are evident

CLARITY (10 points total)
  • The purpose, procedures and conclusions are clearly outlined and the title accurately reflects the problem 

Questions the Judges Might Ask

  • How did you come up with the idea for this project?
  • What did you learn from your background search?
  • How long did it take you to build the apparatus?
  • How did you build the apparatus?
  • How much time (many days) did it take to run the experiments (grow the plants) (collect each data point)?
  • What were your variables? Controls?    
  • How did you make sure to run a fair (controlled) experiment?    
  • What were your significant findings? (Results)
  • What formulas did you use?                                
  • Did your results match your research?
  • How many experiment runs are presented by each data point on the chart?
  • What new questions did your results suggest?
  • How many times did you run the experiment with each configuration?
  • How many experiment runs are represented by each data point on the chart?
  • Did you take all data (run the experiment) under the same conditions, e.g., at the same temperature (time of day) (lighting conditions)?
  • How does your apparatus (equipment) (instrument) work?
  • What do you mean by (terminology or jargon)?
  • Do you think there is an application in industry for this knowledge (technique)?
  • Were there any books that helped you do your analysis (build your apparatus)?
  • When did you start this project?
  • What is the next experiment to do in continuing this study?
  • Are there any areas that we not have covered which you feel are important?
  • Do you have any questions for the judge?

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